I don’t know whether my talk last Sunday was actually recorded because we’ve been having hassle with that, but the main focus was ‘Why we need each other.’ Let me summarise it.

Our culture applauds independence. But we read in Romans 12: “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” That means people need people. Too often we don’t realise how much we need every other member of the church – we think independence, not interdependence.

God wired all of us in such a way that we can only fulfil his purposes for our lives in community, in relationship to each other. That’s what we’re going to be looking at as a church family for the next 40 days, 40 Days of Community.

We looked at three reasons why it’s great to be in a small group with a few other friends who you get to know on a deeper level than just casual acquaintance.

1. I need others to WALK with me. In other words, I need people to help me grow spiritually. The New Testament tells us we’re to walk in the light. We’re to walk in love, we’re to walk in obedience, we’re to walk in the Holy Spirit, we’re to walk as Jesus walked, we’re to walk in wisdom.

But one of the important things is this, (it’s not in the Bible) I’m quoting from Gerry and the Pacemakers; Never Walk Alone (great song – have a listen)

2. I need others to WORK with me. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:10, “God made us to do good works, which he planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.” God put you on earth to do certain things, but you need other people to help you do those things. Otherwise, you get tired.

The reason you’re tired is twofold: a) You try to do it all. b) You try to do it all by yourself! God never meant for you to do that! You know the acronym for Team? (Together, Everyone Achieves More!).

3. I need others to WATCH OUT for me. People who’ll protect me, stand up for me when I need somebody to stand up for me, who’ll help me stay on track, who will warn me if they see me going off. Because we all have blind spots. Things in our lives we can’t see, only other people can see.

A couple of years ago, did you read about that young guy who was an experienced climber and decided he’d go climbing by himself? He thought he could do it alone – but he slipped and fell and his arm got caught. He waited five days alone. He would’ve died there, because there was nobody else to help him. The only way he got loose was to cut off his own arm below the elbow to save his life.

I’m following through a daily reading plan in Rick Warren’s book ‘Better Together’ and really looking forward to going to look at this material tonight in more depth with my L1FEgroup. We’ve been through practically every kind of personal and family crisis you could imagine and we’ve been there for each other. It’s community – it’s God’s plan, for you…